NOTES FOR THE 66TH SESSION General Discussion on States Obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Governance of Land Tenure
By Admin
14 October 2019 at Palais des Nations, Room XVII
Prepared by Swary Utami DEWI
( Indonesia)
Policy changes on social forestry in Indonesia.
nusakini.com - The social forestry in Indonesia has a long journey to achieve the nowadays situations. The embrio began in 1990an when the government started to acknowledge the practices of land use by the community. But nothing had changed much since at the time the land policy was much more on the investments, mostly used by big companies. Good changes for the community started happen between 1998 to 2008 when some schemes of social forestry are formally acknowledged through government laws and regulations (such as The law of Forestry or UU no 41/1999, the government regulation or Peraturan Pemerintah no 6/2007 on Management, Planning and Use of Forests and Forestry Land consisting of social forestry for the community). Several ministerial regulations were also enacted. Now, Indonesia has 5 schemes of SF namely Hutan Desa or Village Forestry, Hutan Kemasyarakatan or Social/Community Forestry, Hutan Tanaman Rakyat or Community Planted Forestry, Kemitraan Kehutanan or Partnership in Forest Management, and Hutan Adat or Customary Forestry. The benefits of SF are for the customary people, as well as for the forest dwellers and the poor community, including landless people, who are dependant to forests for their livelihood, as well as having cultural practices in the case of the Customary Forestry.
Under the regime of President Jokowi, the government has showed its commitment and works. It has been proved by providing land allocation for SF (totally 12.7 million acres). Under the Jokowi regime, SF is a part of national strategic programs (stated in the Presdential Decree or Perpres no 88/2017). SF is also a government strategy to eradicate poverty for the poor community and forest dwellers, minimize social gaps, as well as reduce forest degradation. The government, working with multistakeholders, also facilitates the community to get licenses (kerja bareng jemput bola or working together with CSOs/stakeholders), providing empowerment ways after having the licenses (loans, capacity building for farmers/community, etc) and issuing/revising relevant regulations. Until now, about 3.4 million acres of forest area have been used and managed by the community (including by the customary groups). It involves about 755 thousands household.
Responses to 6 questions.
To ensure protection and inclusion of the poorest, it is important that all tenure security schemes have to be formally recognized and represented adequately. It is also important to acknowledge a variety of forms of land tenure. The schemes should be accessible, affordable, transparent and free from unnecessary complexity. All of the processes need to involve the poor/community (in participatory ways) and make them aware about their rights and responsibility. The government (the ministry) facilitates the process by issuing several related regulations and procedures, involving the community and CSOs in the processes and providing several supporting things such as guidelines to work with the community, conflict resolution mechanisms, and provision of several needed access (such as to get capacity building, market for community products, capital loan to start and develop community business, etc). There are also multistakeholder working groups (at national and provincial levels) to help, promote and ensure all the processes work well.
In order that the processes are not manipulated, during the process to get the licenses, there are processes called verifikasi administrasi and verifikasi teknis. There is also a range of collaboration among CSOs and the land users to make sure that all works well (before and after getting the licenses). The government also provides Badan Layanan Umum or BLU, the bureau that provides loan to the license holders.
Since the land is in the area of the State Forest, the land cannot be sold, rented and handed over. It means that practices of land commodification can be avoided.
To ensure that the community can have optimal benefits from the forests, the practices of agroforestry are commonly applied. There are also the practices of silvopasture and silvofishery among the land users.
Perhutanan Sosial or the Social Forestry (SF) is the schemes of land use or land management by the community, except Hutan Adat (the scheme of ownership/titling right for indigenous people). The government has declared to provide totally 12.7 million acres for SF schemes.
When access is provided to the community, at the same time the government provides acknowledgment, protection and facilitation for the community empowerment. The communities sustainably manage the forestry land based on their planning, helped by CSOs working with them. There are also community plannings which are based on their local wisdoms and practices to manage forest and land.
In order to ensure the interests of the legitimate land users and groups, including women, are accommodated, each process from the planning until implementation should include man, women and the minorities. In case of women, they have equal opportunity to have licenses under their own names.
Regarding the social forestry, there is an opinion saying that most of SF schemes are not land reforms because they are not in the form of certificates or ownership. However, there is another opinion which regards SF is also part of land reform because it acknowledges access to manage the forestry land by the community. In the context of SF, the community can choose the most appropriate scheme for them. Hutan Adat or customary forest scheme is an ownership right. Other forms are access/licenses to manage and use forestry land. In my opinion, SF schemes are much more secure since they are protected and promoted by the government. The licenses are for the period of 35 years and can be extended. It is much safer since the license holders cannot sell or hand over land to other. So, the farmers/communities can always use the land by themselves as long as they managed it sustainably.
To ensure that women and the minorities are not excluded, inclusive approaches are conducted. They are encouraged to apply and access the schemes (for example conducting by the CSOs working with them).
In Indonesia, formalizing can be seen when the government issues a license to manage/use forest land to the community. When it happens, at the same time, the government acknowledges and protects the land user. Although, it is formalized, local wisdom to manage the forest land is respected and acknowledged. In some parts of Indonesian, some schemes of SF such Hutan Desa (Village Forest) and Hutan Kemasyarakatan are managed by local customary practices. In the case of Hutan Adat (Customary Forestry), the forests are managed by the customary people themselves using their own local customary wisdoms and practices.
The government also has regulations such as Perdirjen No 16/2016 that states that in community planning to manage forestry land, the process should be transparent, participatory, accountable and not discriminative. The equal chance in planning and practices should be applied both to men and women.
In order to ensure the rights and interests of the legitimate land users and groups, including women, are accommodated, each process from the planning until implementation should include man, women and the minorities. In case of women, they have equal opportunity to have licenses under their names.
As mentioned above, the government has issued related regulations on this. For example, the government has issued Perdirjen No 16/2016 that states that in community planning to manage forestry land, the process should be transparent, participatory, accountable and not discriminative. The equal chance in planning and practices should be applied both to men and women.
To ensure that the land use schemes are set up to support the intended beneficiaries, the processes from making proposals to getting the land licenses until the implementation involve CSOs (NGOs, working groups, etc). The government also shows commitments by providing land allocation for SF (totally 12.7 million acres), facilitating to get licenses (kerja bareng jemput bola or working together with CSOs/stakeholders), providing empowerment ways after having the licenses (loans, capacity building for farmers/community, etc) and issuing/revising relevant regulations.
As mentioned above, the licenses are for the period of 35 years and can be extended based on certain evaluation. So, in my opinion, it is much safer since the license holders cannot sell or hand over the land to other. The farmers/communities can always use the land sustainably by themselves.
In order to ensure the rights and interests of women, each process from the planning until implementation should involve women. Women have equal opportunity as men to have licenses under their own names. The government has issued related regulations to ensure that women treat equally. For example, as mentioned above the government has issued Perdirjen No 16/2016 that states that in community planning to manage forestry land, the process should be transparent, participatory, accountable and not discriminative. The equal chances in planning and practices should be applied both to men and women.
Lessons learned.
The social forestry or SF is an interesting process involving the ecological, forestry, social, political, gender and poverty issues.
SF is a much more learning process involving stakeholders and using dynamic adaptive participatory approaches.
SF needs pro and appropriate government regulations, multistakeholder works and relevant supporting system (capital or loan, capacity building, etc).